Sports ramblings…with a Yankees bias!

Yankee Homers Cure All…

I’ll take a split…

Fortunately for the Yankees, they emerged victorious today against the Los Angeles Angels to split the two game series.The mediocre pitching line continued, albeit with no injuries, but the Yankee bats were active enough to ensure sufficient runs by the time the Angels recorded their last out in the top of the 9th inning.

William Perlman/The Star Ledger

Javier Vazquez gave up 9 hits and 5 runs in 5 innings, but it was enough to earn his 8th victory (against 7 losses).The key hit was a pinch hit three-run homer in the 7th by Colin Curtis.Robinson Cano and Juan Miranda also homered in the game, but Alex Rodriguez did not so he remains at 598 home runs.Curtis was an interesting story as he entered the game after Brett Gardner was thrown out of the game while batting.So, the strike count stood at two before Curtis even got warmed up.

Vazquez, with the victory, has defeated all 30 major league teams.

Playing against the Yankees definitely helped Hideki Matsui break out of his slump.He had only hit only one home run since June 7th before playing the Yankees.In the two game series, he homered in each game.I am okay with Godzilla getting his hits so long as they aren’t the game winners.Fortunately, they weren’t either day.

Paul Rodriguez/The Orange County Register

The Yankees split the season series with the Angels, 4-4, and won’t see them again unless they meet in the play-offs.The Yankees now await the arrival of the Kansas City Royals.

Joel Sherman ran a piece in his New York Post column this morning where he speculated that Yankees manager Joe Girardi could be a potential target for managerial vacancy created with the Chicago Cubs when Lou Piniella announced that he would be retiring at the end of the season.I completely agree with his analysis.I’ve always considered Girardi to be a “Chicago” guy.He was born and raised in the area, as was his wife, and he started professional baseball with the Cubs and played there again after he left the Yankees.

It started me to think who the Yankees would turn to if the worst case scenario played out (Girardi leaving at the end of the season, which is, by the way, the expiration of his current contract).The first guy I thought about for the position was Don Mattingly.Mattingly is the assumed replacement for current Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre.However, Torre still hasn’t decided if he’ll manage next year, and of course, the whole situation with the Dodgers ownership (the McCourt divorce situation) could create the right circumstances to woo Mattingly back to New York.

But when I turned on ESPN this morning, they were showing the highlights of last night’s Dodgers-Giants game where Mattingly had assumed management of the team after both Joe Torre and bench coach Bob Schaefer had been ejected.In the 9th inning, with closer Jonathan Broxton on the mound, Mattingly went out to pay a visit.As he started to walk away, he decided that he wanted to say something else to Broxton and turned back around.He realized that he had made a mistake when the umpires were saying “no” but by then, it was too late.When he made the about face, it counted as a second trip to the mound so he had no choice but to pull Broxton.George Sherrill was brought in and the Dodgers let a 5-4 lead slip away as they ultimately lost the game 7-5.Now, I agree, the faux paux would not be reason to avoid hiring Mattingly but the timing couldn’t have been worse (at least for me).

Jeff Chiu/AP

It’s tough.As much as I like Mattingly, I am not sure that I am a proponent for a rookie manager.I think the year in Florida as the Marlins manager was invaluable for Joe Girardi.He is a better manager today for the experience.Same with Terry Francona in Boston.He is one of the best managers in baseball, and I think it can be directly attributed to his learning opportunity with the Phillies.For the Cubs, I still think Ryne Sandberg is the best fit for the organization.But if you were the owner of the Cubs, would you want a Triple A manager who has never managed in the bigs or a highly prepared and accomplished major league manager with a World Series resume?There are just not that many attractive managerial candidates in my opinion.I am sure that Bobby Valentine will re-surface at some point, as well Buck Showalter, but neither of those guys excite me.If the Steinbrenner Family is smart, they’ll take care of Girardi and never let him have the chance to consider the Cubs.

EPA

The deaths in the Yankees family have, unfortunately, continued into this week.The latest is the Yankees manager from the great 1961 season of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris (the year that Roger hit 61 home runs and the Yankees won the World Series), Ralph Houk.His World Series championships (he also won in 1962) were the last before the demise of the team under the ownership of CBS and before George Steinbrenner purchased the team.He had taken over as the Yankees manager replacing Casey Stengel in 1960 after the Yankees had lost the World Series to the Pittsburgh Pirates.Houk would manage until 1963, when he stepped into the front office.He returned to managing the Yankees in 1966 and stayed through 1973, Steinbrenner’s first year.I primarily remember Houk as the manager for the Detroit Tigers, although he did manage the Boston Red Sox at the end of his managerial career.Houk apparently died today at his home in Winter Haven, FL of natural causes.He was 90.

2 Comments

Sad news about Houk. It hasn’t been a good week for Yankees legends! I was sorry to hear Yogi isn’t well enough after his fall to go to Cooperstown this weekend. That was such a weird game the Dodgers played last night, and Mattingly’s gaffe must have been embarrassing for him. I don’t see Hal and Co. letting Girardi go to the Cubs, but I do see Torre taking that job!

It was very sad news about Houk. There has always been speculation about what might have been if he was the manager of the Red Sox in ’86. Mattingly’s error, while humorous, it also seemed to be a pretty strict interpretation of the rules.

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